Signal interference and the FCC license freeze

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by NowhereMan 1966

Interesting story there, I plan to read it. I know Westinghouse also bought a Cleveland radio station as during that time and it swapped the KYW callsign from Philly to Cleveland. I know there were some times I did get channel 3 from Cleveland during the analogue days so I think interference could be possible. It looks like this was during the days when they though 12 VHF channels would be enough but they were wrong. IIRC, when UHF came about, Youngstown, OH became a UHF market with 21, 27 and 33.

KYW-AM and TV were already under Westinghouse ownership when the stations were in Philadelphia. Westinghouse owned KYW-AM and TV from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s, then they were moved to Cleveland in '65. NBC purchased the stations and promptly changed their callsigns to WKYC-AM and TV -- the callsign the television station still has today. WKYC-AM radio has had two callsign changes over the years -- WKYC-AM to WWWE (3WE) in 1972, then WTAM some time in the 1990s.

WTAM was WKYC-AM's original callsign when the former first signed on in Cleveland in 1923. The company (Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas) that owns today's WTAM radio changed the callsign from 3WE to WTAM, not only because the latter is the station's heritage callsign, but also, and in CC's opinion more importantly, because the callsign has the letters "AM" in it. For some reason, CC wanted a callsign for the former WWWE that had those letters somewhere after the W. It considered calls such as WUAM (rejected because of the similarity to and possible confusion with WUAB-TV channel 43, Cleveland's MyTV affiliate), et al., finally settling on WTAM. The station calls itself "Cleveland's only news radio" and operates with 50kW on 1100 kHz full time. As WKYC-AM, the station was a top-40 50-kW clear-channel rock-and-roll powerhouse, while its FM arm, WKYC-FM, played automated "elevator music" in stereo on 105.7 MHz. The latter is now known, again after several callsign and format changes since 1972, as WMJI "Majic 105.7" and plays what are now known as "classic hits", formerly referred to as oldies.

Since the abolition of the clear-channel rules in the mid-'80s, however, today's WTAM-1100 no longer has the fantastic nighttime coverage area it had during the WKYC-NBC era (and the 3WE days). Today, WTAM's signal is protected from interference for a distance of 750 miles in all directions, and there are now many former daytimers on 1100 now operating full-time on the frequency -- with lower power and directional signal patterns after local sunset.

Because of this, WTAM -- and almost all other former clear-channel AM stations in the United States -- can no longer claim the coast-to-coast coverage they enjoyed before the clear channels were abolished. The new rules were probably enacted to allow small-town, low-power former daytime-only stations to operate 24-7, so as to better serve the communities to which they are licensed. A station near where I grew up took advantage of this ruling about ten years ago; it formerly operated daytime only on 1330 kHz with 0.5 kW (500 watts). Thanks to the new rules, the station now runs 24-7, 0.5kW daytime and 0.042kW (42 watts) directional nighttime. An all-oldies station about 35 miles northeast of here also applied for and received permission a few years ago to operate full time on 1360 kHz, with 5kW daytime and 0.035kW (35 watts) directional at night. The station runs flea power with a sharply directional signal pattern after sundown Eastern time to protect, among others, 50kW WSAI-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio, also on 1360 kHz. WSAI is the "senior" station on 1360; as such it is entitled to and receives protection from interference by smaller stations on the frequency.

Note as well that, also due to FCC rule changes regarding AM broadcast stations' day and night power output levels, some stations assigned to frequencies such as 950, 980, etc. -- frequencies formerly used by low-power stations running well under 10 kW -- now operate with 50kW, at least during daytime hours, with much lower power and very sharply directional antenna patterns after local sundown. Stations that have taken advantage of this ruling include WXYT-AM 1270 in Detroit, WTEM 980 (formerly WRC-AM) in Washington, D. C., et al. Some stations in Florida (such as one station in Seffner, Florida, near Tampa) operate 50kW daytime and sign off at sundown. I feel sorry for people who live very near these stations' towers, as they must have the dickens of a problem with interference from that powerhouse 50kW signal. I bet the cable TV companies in those areas really have problems as well keeping the stations' signals from riding in on the cable, despite the fact that the cables connecting the subscriber's video gear to the cable system are shielded. My former landlord lives within a block or two of a 1kW day/0.5kW nighttime AM station; I bet her cable TV is shielded to the hilt, as even a 1kW signal at only two blocks is formidable and is capable of causing all sorts of interference problems to TV sets, et al. in homes close to the towers.

BTW, Youngstown, Ohio is not the only U. S. city to have UHF-only television service in its area. Fresno and Bakersfield, California are also UHF-only markets, as is Fort Wayne, Indiana. These cities apparently got on the television bandwagon after the UHF band was opened for U. S. television broadcasting. The reason UHF channels 14 to 83 (at that time, 1950s) were allocated to new TV stations in this country was that the old VHF band, channels 2-13, was becoming overcrowded, with interference problems in many areas. After the UHF allocation, all new TV stations in the U. S. were assigned to UHF channels.

Channels 70-83, however, were reassigned in 1970 to land-mobile and other non-video services; these channels were formerly used by translators and even by some commercial TV stations, when those stations first signed on. (I think Youngstown's WFMJ-TV channel 21, for example, was on channel 73 when it began service to the Mahoning Valley area; however, I don't know when the switch was made to channel 21.)